About Us

We are group of enthusiastic and passionate professionals

Dedicated to presenting the incredible heritage of our country to the world, in our tours and programs, we try to offer as much as Croatia can give. Our goal is to satisfy your curiosity by designing uniquely creative vacations and to provide first-class service whether it's finding the perfect guide or the perfect villa.

Secret Dalmatia was started in 2005 by Alan, as a result of his lifelong intent to reveal the Croatian heritage to the world. An expert team of travel designers, today Secret Dalmatia introduces remote locations in our region to the travel map and presents the famous jewels in a new manner. Custom-designing creative leisure programs whilst insisting on first-class service, we try to show you as much of Croatia as possible, tailored completely to your interests and wishes. Our guests get insight into unique identities of these places through original, and often exclusive, tours.Several of our offspring projects have proven visionary. Culinary Croatia was the first food and wine travel website in the region. Our Luxury Croatian Villas site was the first collection of ultimately luxurious villas in Croatia and still remains one of the most exclusive ones. Over time, we have made our way into the neighboring region and enjoy welcoming our guests anywhere in the Balkans.If you are ready to truly experience Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro and other countries in the region, please contact us.

Meet the team

Alan Mandić

As the founder and managing director of Secret Dalmatia, Alan is personally dedicated to the vision of bringing the hidden beauties of Croatia to every Client. Alan has a deep connection to his country, so after finishing his university education at the New England School of Arts & Design in Boston, he decided to return to Croatia. The decision to found Secret Dalmatia followed an epiphany he had whilst wandering around Bribirska Glavica, one of the most important archaeological sites in the country. As the sunset settled in the distance, he stumbled upon two open sarcophagi and thought: "I must show this to the world!” Few months later, in 2005, he put together his passion, experience, and knowledge to create Secret Dalmatia and he has been dedicated to it full-time ever since.

Mariana Filipović

Mariana has been a dedicated luxury travel professional for the past 7 years, having worked in sales and management of one of Croatia's leading hotels. She has spent most of her life in Split and is still absolutely in love with the city! With a degree in tourism and economics, Mariana is a professional ready to create memorable travel experiences to please all of your interests.

Dubravka Petričević

Before joining the Secret Dalmatia team, Dubravka contributed to several 5* Croatian properties as the member of front office and sales teams. Avid communicator with a special interest for the Croatian culture and gastronomy, she leaves nothing to chance. With a master's degree in Italian and Russian, and a licence as an official court interpreter, Dubravka immediately comes across just as passionate as the cultures she chose to study.

Nataša Perić

Nataša has been in tourism for the better part of her career. Starting at entry level and working her way up to the position of product manager for individual and group European travel, she mastered each step of the travel coordination process. This makes her able to foresee your needs and ensure your travel experiences are smooth and agreeable. With a passion for history, arts and travel, Nataša puts a piece of herself into each carefully crafted itinerary!

Tea Susnjar

Tea’s choice of career has been strongly influenced by her wanderlust. She only feels at home when she’s abroad and that’s why she’s keen on helping others feel the same way when visiting Croatia. After years of being a member of front office and sales teams, she is now using her knowledge and experience to help create new and unforgettable memories for you!

Jelena Ćoso

After more than 13 years in tourism, first as a Chief Stewardess onboard 5* luxury yachts than as a member of Marketing and sales department of Croatia Boat Show nautical fair, Jelena has a strong eye for details and organizational skills to deliver your full expectations and provide you with unforgettable travel experiences.

Her knowledge of Croatian coast, islands and hidden locations combined with historical attractions she discovered as a tour guide, will help you to create and enjoy your perfect holidays.

Secret Dalmatia is all about protection

Our passion for showing Croatia to the world stems from our immense respect for its known and unknown heritage, natural and cultural, material and immaterial. Croatian tourism relies greatly on this heritage, and as sustainable travel is of great importance to us, we find that remaining actively involved in its research and protection is both a way of giving back and investing into the future.

Every year, Secret Dalmatia partakes in regional projects intended to further preserve, research or promote Croatian heritage. We help both professionals and enthusiasts who care deeply about our land, wildlife and sea as well as about our historical and ethnological legacy. Our support is either through donations or simply through lending our voice to publicize threats to our heritage, like the lack of preservation and looting of archaeological sites, illegal bird and wildlife hunting...

To date, several projects funded from our donations resulted in extraordinary discoveries, such as the underwater Liburnian settlement dated to 3.500 years ago, discovered in collaboration with the University of Zadar.Read more HERE.

Testimonials

Sorry for our delay, Diana. It is never easy coming back from a vacation and was especially difficult after such an incredible experience in Croatia. Thank you for truly creating a hassle-free vacation. We can't express enough how easy the vacation felt which allowed us to really relax and enjoy all the beauty of Croatia.…
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Jon S. & James P., USA

Dear Mariana- Thank you for all your help to make it an unforgettable trip to Croatia. We enjoyed meeting you as well and are so appreciative of the efforts to make it a carefree trip for everyone. We hope that we will be able to return to see more of your beautiful country. A few…
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Hopkins Family, USA

Hi Diana Thank you for your email. We thoroughly enjoyed the whole Secret Dalmatia experience and had a wonderfully memorable week. Specifically, our driver from the train station in Zagreb right through to when he dropped us in Split, was absolutely wonderful. Our local guide in Zagreb was also especially lovely. All the guides…
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Mr. & Mrs. D'Arcy, USA

Thanks, Mirna. It was a great vacation for us. The hotels were terrific. They were well run with, especially in Stari Grad and Split, lots of personality. The drivers were punctual, helpful and careful. Your restaurant recommendations were great. We had a good balance of free time and pure-arranged travel. And we had good weather.…
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Mr. & Mrs. Thompson, Canada

Dear Mirna and Alan, We really don't know how to thank you enough for the wonderful trip that you planned for Randy and me. As you know, this was a special trip, because we were celebrating Randy's 60th birthday. He wanted to go to Croatia, because his grandparents had come from Croatia and we had…
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